Thang Nguyen 555

Cultures on Collision Course

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With some short-term relief work in Asia/Africa and long stint in Telecom, Thang also earned a B.A. at Pennsylvania State University. M.A. in Communication at Wheaton Graduate School, M.A. in Cross-Cultural Communication at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Boston. In addition, he earned a CELTA – classes taken in Hanoi for cultural re-immersion.

  • Alternate Dream

    American Dream has undergone a makeover of late (maybe because the Chinese economy itself was heading for a cliff, so it needed to apply a break on lending).

    Whatever the underlying reason, America middle class is contracting not because of shrinking population , but mostly because of declining income and consumption. In short, the good old time isn’t rolling back anytime soon.  At least, not for the same people. Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.

    For the past few years, we became schooled in all kinds of financial instrumentation: derivative, quantitative easing etc….

    New economy, old economists.

    Half of them was right half of the time. The other half call themselves “contrarians”.

    I bet on the future.  I know kids are smart. They have been told to play it safe, to hold their cards closer to the chest.

    And it (the Dream) did not materialize for them (at least, not  for their European counterparts).

    So, they figure. I am going out on the limp to strike for gold myself.

    Estonian kids saw the success of Skype. As a result, they are learning how to code at an early age.

    Long way from the fall of the Berlin wall  to the building of the firewall.

    Meanwhile, back  at the range, American are forced to be “content” with loss leaders, everyday.

    Dollar Stores are rising while the dollar itself isn’t worth much.

    Made-in-China use to be jeered at. Now it’s the only game in town.

    I know new games are in the works. Part of the chain of evolution is to invent disruption e.g. flat panel TVs vs tube TV‘s,  Wi-fi vs cable wiring. Perhaps someday we will see the electrification in transportation. For now, adjust your expectations. Wake up hot-dog nation. Rise from your slumber. Step out into the darkest of nights where the stars are few, but much brighter. The glass has always been half full.  It’s in the American character, belongs to those who left behind the familiar for the unfamiliar. Those who dare to dream and dream big. Anchor it  really high. And turn a portion of it into reality. One by one, and together, Yes We Can, again. An adjusted American Dream., smelled more like our new reality, is still better than none.

  • Heart and Soul

    The intangible qualities. We can only recognize them when we see them.

    How can we put a measure on that which makes us human i.e. mortal yet full of life versus a machine whose sole existence is to carry out instructions and perform repetitive tasks without getting bored (the sad thing is when the machine gets to do interesting things, while human boring things).

    Fordism has spreaded from automobile assembly line to the entire manufacturing process as we see today (Foxconn and workers’ tension).

    Heart and Soul , however, are a bit elusive:  Air on the G String, Nocturne; Shubert can move you, a movie clip can make you feel  joyous or sad, elated or evaporated (The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face).

    B movies and production houses have succumbed to poor substitutes e.g. sound track and laugh track.

    Anything with an audience e.g. a lesson plan, a presentation, all-hands meeting; requires heart-and-soul delivery . To be flawless, one needs to go through 3 stages of rehearsal (courtesy of recent LinkedIn article on presentation rehearsal: You Sucks stage, Robotic stage, and finally You Rocks!).

    Aim for standing ovation. Paint a broad stroke of vision, the type of speech Jesse Jackson would give at convention.

    Facts and feeling. Sweat and tears. Fire and brimstone.

    Orators of the past were known to speak at tent meetings for hours on end, most notably John Wesley. Today we only have day-time television which caters to the lowest common denominators : “Jerry, Jerry” ( with bouncers on the set). Or Maury, Maury …also w/ bouncers.

    Jean-Luc Godard said: “all we need for a movie is a gun and a girl”. Hence, it seems as though all content was just  to fill the programming gap, waiting  to sell soap, soup and cereal.

    Via Twitter, we saw glimpses of greatness, but only in 140 characters.

    To stir the heart and soul, we need some work-up time.

    Warm them up then chill them out. Stirring and settling.

    Then BAM!. Hit them at the gut level. A call to ACTION.

    Truth  has its own ring and can stand on its own legs.

    Don’t get in its way.

    Fear not.

    Ask not.

    Stay hungry, stay foolish.

    He who is no fool to lose that which he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose.

    I have a dream.

    Man from Hope.

    It took a village.

    Great orators stirred us and their sound bites stayed with us.

    We feel a lump in our throat. It resonates and reinvigorates us.

    It stirs up our Heart and our Soul.

    It passed muster.

    Quality is what you recognize when you see it.

    The rest, any machine can do, at the automobile or chocolate factory.

    Le Temp Modern. I love Lucy. Foxconn Apple plants. From Detroit to Disneyland, at the turn of  the 20th century to present time, are we happier now? (studies show China experiencing similar dissonance i.e. wealthier, but not happier, due to eroded “iron rice bowl”). Or the gas line and hot-dog line (at Cosco) have weighed you down?

    Wake up Hot-Dog Nation. We can do better. Think and Ask Not. Feel the pain. Use it. Start rising. And don’t stop there. Have a dream. A different dream (by definition dreams are supposed to be out of this world. What are you being afraid of: that it might come true?)  Seek First. That Thy will be done,….but first on Earth.

  • On being an influencer

    Like it or not, we all are either on the receiving or giving end of Influence.

    But few understand what constitute sphere of influence.

    A study on the subject, by Cialdini , lists below elements:

    – Like (ability). This is self-explanatory. When you like someone or are liked by someone, nothing can go wrong.

    This explains the “a priori” principle: we read into a situation or person due to our early imprints (trust that face that resembles mother’s – Oil Olay commercial uses “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face ” to resonate and resurrect that trust). Charismatic personalities, cinematic and telegenic figures all got our vote of confidence (Kennedy-Reagan).

    – Social proof. The majority get to decide and have the final say (free election, trial by jury). We took this at face value (in experiment, a decoy looked up to a highrise. After a while, a huge crowd gathered to look up to the sky as well.) Conformity principle is a sub-set of this: pagelink, youtube, McDonald (billions burgers served).

    – Consistency. We need that congruence between past choices and new ones. That way, we can live with ourselves.

    e.g. membership fees and bulk buying (Costco and other Reward cards). Ultimate antidote to “buyer’s  remorse” (Zappos free-shipping for returned merchandise – relies on people’s resigning to a faith accompli).

    – Reciprocity.  “loss leaders“: they first scratched our backs, then, we scratch theirs. Customer life-time value is worth much more than an initial and temporal “loss”. This is where brand and habit buying takes over ( path of least resistance ). Casinos give out VIP free rooms and/or buffet.

    – Scarcity. How many times have we seen an ad, then rushed to the store, just to find out the item was no longer available. Then, with a rain-check , we are more convinced (influenced) due to scarcity. Right now, investors are worried that I-phone 5 are in short supplies.

    – Authority. The ultimate pair-association in advertising: Angelina Jolie , Sean Connery and the Gucci bags.

    We want to identify with and project ourselves onto these icons. After all, 007 has ducked the bullets for 50 years.  What if we can be like them (immortal), in some ways? Well, they travel light and high on Gucci. That purse got cloud.

    It got their endorsements. Their “Likes”. After all, 007 must know how to choose his “gadgets” .

    Now you know. We influence and be influenced by others. A test: put your parents through this check list. See if each and every single item fits the bill. I bet you they did. Our parents: our ultimate influencers. They first gave us life (reciprocity), then they sustained us (sorry, I have to use the past tense in my case) – commitment and consistency, from cradle to the grave.

    Then when they were gone, there are no replacement (scarcity). Of course, they were the authority (I still wanted to buy those sesame-seed cakes my Dad and I used to eat after our weekly noodle  breakfast or mom’s fermented rice for snacks).

    And I like them. They liked me. Social proof: everyone likes and loves their parents. Period. Case closed.

    Knowing these principles, you can improve your sphere of influence, or be innoculated against unsubstantiated claims of social proof, or build better resistance against those who initiated reciprocity cycle (Hari Khrishna free roses at the airport).

    Be the best influencer you can be. It’s a world-wide web in need of good and selfless influencer like yourself. Keep feeding the network, pay forward. When good men just stood by and did nothing, we would end up with the wild wild web.

  • 30 years on

    USA Today celebrated its 30th anniversary issue, with bolder graphics and fonts (thanks! we can use larger fonts now).

    Those papers we pick up outside our hotel rooms when traveling on business  (to be left behind at airport lounges).

    Anyway. This issue features some “futurists” in each sector: urban architecture, space travel, transportation (Ford), internet (Twitter’s founder) etc…

    A quote that jumps out of the page: “in the future, the world will be divided into two classes: those who are told by the machine what to do, and those who tell the machine what to do”.

    Wow! unmanned cars which Google is currently test-driving. Electric cars = computers on wheels.

    Information will be ubiquitous, like those electricity plugs we scarcely notice.

    We will be 30 years older (just think back to 1982. Back then, a friend was “experimenting” with his personal computer).

    Back then, we were transiting from cassette to CD, from a weak America into a stronger one (Carter was quoted as saying:” we have a crisis of confidence”), from being a debt-free nation into a debtor nation.

    Now, Iran came in full circle.

    30 years on.

    A lot has happened, but then, nothing has been off-script: we still have an election, the economy is still in the top 3 along with the Arab Spring went south. Hatred incites, love unites. We need Buscalia (love Guru) and Moon (matchmaker).

    30 years ago, we got the Concorde, Mc Donald Douglass and McDonald. Now only McDonald (even the Burger King near me was closed). A bounty is still out for the head of Rushdie, the writer in exile.

    I heard in Detroit, houses were foreclosed section by section, and sold for 5K, but no one dared to come in and be the first penguin.

    30 years on. Where would you be after paying off the house and college loan. Will you be driving an EV?  a domestic?

    Will we do away with laptop as we now do with desktop (BTW, the father of laptop has just died. He brought friendly design to computers ).

    It’s in the American character to “make things happen” instead of “letting history happen to you” (quoted Marc Andreessen).

    30 years on. We will all be writing our memoirs (lots of time on hand). WordPress will be bought out by other photo and video sites, perhaps Google. Then when we search for someone or some place, it will show all the tweets and Likes, Linkedin’s profile and blog, video,  Google photos and Facebook social graphs).  

    Our “ego-sphere” will be stored in the Cloud (reminds me of Augustinian line “our soul is anchored in the heavenly, no wonders we feel restless unless we find rest in Thee). Deep search will  not be just for private investigators.

    Then we will have privacy issues just as in Electronic Medical Records. In an accident, the EV will pop up our medical conditions for first responders to attend to. It’s a bold new world. Can’t wait to grow old. Aging will be a cool thing, and not jeered at (especially when we can afford spare artificial organs) (see my other blog on NEVER LET ME GO) . We will stay active in the cities and don’t have to move to Cocoa Beach, Florida (home of the USA Today founder). 30 years ago, even while escaping to Bali or Bahamas, we couldn’t wait to get online (You’ve Got Mail). 30 years on, we can’t wait to get offline. Maybe the hotel still leave a copy of USA Today outside the door. This time, definitely in bolder prints.

  • We can do better!

    We all campaign for our own survival and decency.

    Our term limits are long, and the road is hard.

    It was still dark when I got to the park.

    A guy with backpack barely crossed the street. That early!

    Then it hit me: the street is his home. He never got out of any house. So being around there early or late, geography is irrelevant.

    America, we can do better.

    Let’s tackle the issue (I blogged once, though unfairly, to make a point, that Curiosity Rover was looking for any sign of life on Mars, while on Main Street, all kinds of life are evident, but no one cares to lend a hand.)

    The payload (admin overhead) for any program perpetuates itself. In short, we trample upon our own device, good intention or not.

    So America sees its sons (and daughters) walk the street at dawn to dusk, with no specific purpose.

    (ironically, the unemployment office is named “One Stop“) With 10 per cent of payroll revenue loss, America is bleeding by interest payment.  Next generation of homeless kids end up with scars and shame, fast food instead of fast track to college.

    Think strategic. Think long-term. Think with a heart. America, ask not. We can do better!

  • Social boosters

    We stand on the shoulders of giants: wheel, movable types, steam engines, electricity and the internet.

    Now Iphone 5.

    Larger screen, one extra row of icons, aerial and panoramic view.

    Information on the go.

    I can rattle on.

    We are at a point when our ways (technology) are growing faster than our use (apps).

    Because of the Iphone 5  panoramic view, am I to travel to the Grand Canyon to take advantage of this new feature?

    With Google Earth, do I keep looking at my ex’s house from out-of-state?

    After a few trials, we will get bored and move pass new-toy stage.  Not that I am ungrateful.

    I do, however, appreciate all the help I have got, as once said, “it took a village”.

    My Acknowledgement page should be exhaustive: from parents to people I don’t get to see any more. But also the coffee vendor whose son I befriended during my last months in Vietnam.

    People who day in and day out got up early, and get the coffee  hot and ready.

    Social boosters.

    I appreciate the invisible bakers and dishwashers. People who are portrayed in “Nickel and Dime”.

    Soon, we will have fewer of those: milkman and mailman, paper boy and cable guy.

    All the jobs seem to have been shipped somewhere else. End of  men.

    The US retains high-touch high-value jobs while off-shoring its manufacturing base  (thus rendered irrelevant many civil-rights accomplishments such as EOE).

    Latest indicators show Switzerland and Singapore in the top-tier, while the US and Japan trailing in  World Economy (competitiveness).

    Still I miss and am grateful for social support, social interaction and yes, occasional social friction.

    Now, we order things online, self-serve at the pump, mix our own soda drinks or ice cream flavors and even design our own T-shirts. We have morphed from being a Con-sumer to being a Pro-sumer (even the IT admin will soon be packing because of the iCloud, gas-station attendants because of the EV charging stations or cash-only kiosks. JetBlue, SouthWest both let passengers book their flights and self-checkin).

    I  miss those social boosters. Where would I be today without them.

    We stand on shoulders of giants, inventors of the past, but also on “nickel and dime” folks. Soon, we will have to say thanks to the machine, which seems to have beaten us to the punch.

  • Time as equalizer

    Presidential terms last four years.  Our life expectancy, used to be much less, now stands in the mid-70’s depends on the air quality near you. It’s an allotment. Non-negotiable. Except for a few variables e.g.unique gene pool, diet, exercise, stress level and accidents.

    Some people even wish they were dead.  If you drag on day in and day out pushing the shopping cart, full of  discarded possession, then heck,  yes, you should.

    I don’t expect our leaders to solve every problem . They got 9/11 memorial to attend to, reelection or election speech to give, and negative ads to launch.

    But then, the homeless men and the presidential candidates both have on hand only a few decades left to influence the course of history and to deflect deadly and detrimental trajectories e.g. healthier school lunches, smarter curricula, wasted talent  (where would Bill Gates be today had someone not allowed him to practice programming skills at night in a computer lab).

    Time is evil.

    Rich men and poor men.

    Strong men and weak men.

    Faithful men and flirty men.

    All got only that long to live, to learn and yes, to regret.

    It’s part of the package: to err is human.

    Those who risked nothing, gained nothing.

    Money can be borrowed (especially today, when banks are pushing for it, but not without conditions) but time cannot.

    The 80/20 rule shows us there are times when we feel and actually are more productive.

    Athletes know about and leverage their peak time performance.

    And Moore’s Law makes planned obsolescence   a de facto (more apps with better speed of processing  keep coming down the pipe).

    Just don’t wish to live on forever, as the joke goes ” a man wished he could live on forever. So God turned him into a tree”.

    Plan your funeral ahead, preferably with standing room only. Work backward from there and cross out that check list, one by one (gotta see Paris for example).

    You will laugh and cry, and beat yourself for not seeing the elephant in the room, or the Emperor without clothes.

    It’s the spirit of the times. We have all been willfully blind when inside the bubble (Tulip? Railroad? Internet? Housing?).

    The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.

    Might as well. Because to him ,with hammer in hand, everything looks like nails.

    When you get hammered down, don’t stay down. Gabby did not. She got back onto the platform, and not just any platform, but the DNC platform. Her time has yet to be over. So has ours. Stand up and stand your ground.

  • Ennobling

    You don’t have to be rich or poor.  Nobility is a choice.

    A willful act of service. A realization that your words, which might injure someone, be best left unsaid.

    WWII servicemen, having seen and heard all there was to be experienced, have put themselves through school (GI Bills) and affected the change we see today in America.

    Ennobled, encouraged and emboldened.

    The next generation saw the Fall of Saigon. This time, servicemen and women got jeered at upon returning home.

    How long will it take to right the wrong? Agent Orange and secret agent.

    No safety net for people whose call of duty is to protect others’ safety.

    But if they did volunteer and serve out of noble causes and conviction, they will rise again.

    The Phoenix indeed does rise from the burning ashes.

    And so it goes.

    Yesterday’s gone. Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.

    Rich or poor, gay or straight, nothing can stop you from being ennobled.

    It’s a choice, not a birth right, unlike the European feudal system which is passe.

    It’s time  to arm oneself with the best of knowledge (coursera) and connection (social media) to affect change.

    Get out and vote. Get up and be ennobled. I am sick of having a dream. The journey of a thousand miles does begin with that single first baby step. Deal with innertia and get off that couch! Just Do It!

  • Socially connected

    The inner ring then the outer ones.

    We learn to trust, to collaborate.

    Great things cannot be achieved alone.

    That’s why the President tweets. That’s why we tweet.

    Do you know someone who needs our services?

    Or some place who is hiring so our students can apply.

    We need those links and those leads.

    People need people.

    On LinkedIn, we keep seeing so and so is now connected with so and so.

    The social graph keeps getting denser. Pretty soon, the net (shaped in our image) will be big enough to carry us to safety *unlike our social safety net which is in need of mending).

    New world order, fashioned after our image and likings.

    I have come across issues and images I would never have come across on my own.

    Thanks to the net economy and taxonomy; yes, I can.

    Let’s see if Twitter will tip the election (Kennedy election was a close call as well).

    I suspect that it will.

    We are not back in 2000. We are in 2012.

    Apocalyptic year.

    And we have made it thus far pass Labor Day.

    Penn State lost 2 games out of the gate.

    And the economy, especially in Europe, is still puttering.

    Hard times. Like those Post Recession black and white phoros (migrant Madonna).

    Something is to be done but then everything has been done.

    Together we can. Can’t we.

    More than ever before, we are socially connected.

    More than ever before, we are doing worse.

    What paradox!

    What predicament!

    All the tools in the world All the help in the world.

    Yet still stuck in lower gear.

    If we apply the five stages of grief  to the situation, we are now somewhere pass Anger and Denial.

    We are in Compromise and Depression.

    When people compromised, they ask for less  in return.

    And when they are in depression, nothing gets done. Hitting the blank wall. Everything shuts down.

    Socially connected or not, let’s remind one another to quickly Accept (acknowledge the Elephant in the room), and move one. Get out and vote . Get some fresh air. Go travel and spend money. Fall is a good time to catch up on some spending and yes, reading (Tom Wolfe is coming out with his voluminous piece again). Turn the chapter to “your life 2.o”.

    Learn from Penn State, even with its first two losses. Ouch!

  • Ma Belle

    She hit all the right notes. Struck the chords. Evoked the emotion.

    Great speech arouses.

    Got the audience on their feet.

    They were waiting to hear, not for a hand-out but for a herald.

    Together we can.

    But the disconnect is when it comes to action: People simply don’t believe either side i.e. the propaganda, the politics and the promises.

    But if everyone elects not to vote, the problems won’t go away. Collective denial.

    Suicide.

    The take-away, and there are many, from Michelle O’s speech was that she is a concerned mom, just like everyone else.

    Down to earth, homie and honest.

    Just need a chance.

    A shot at the dream, and not a shot in the dark.

    An opportunity to work, to materialize the dream.

    America has been about hardware (military and moral righteousness). Now it needs to be nimble, to focus on its strength: software, education and not entitlement, creativity and not exclusivity, competitiveness but not isolation.

    Soft power.

    After all, it has learned hard lessons from relying on hardware and hard numbers alone (ironically, there is a piece  about Hubbard Sciences attempt to cure Agent Orange victims in Hanoi . Twice the wrongs won’t make one right).

    We keep exporting the worst (sex and violence in films), while suppressing the best (foreign language and art programs).

    (Apple’s late CEO – Steve Jobs – said he honestly could not find enough qualified engineers to produce the I-phones in the US).

    Go figure.

    Back to our Mom-in-Chief.

    From the standpoint of a delayed-broadcast viewer, I am still at a loss about our complacency: we can now view broadcast from any laptop, at any time, anywhere.

    We live in a time when Presidents can tweet. And we can too. From the People, by the People.

    Yet we are out of touch, not because of lacking in ways but in will (courtesy of Lloyd Tran of the Cleantech Institute).

    Kids will take charge. They will look back at this generation as the “transitional” one (from go go to so-so times).

    Though we will not be remembered as the Greatest Generation, at least, depends on how we act,  as the Survivors Generation. The phasing out of the Old Order (Post Office, hard-back books, Internal Combustion Engines, polluted nation, homeless nation etc…) to the new (4-hour work week, EV nation, Virtual  Leader of the World.) Be all you can be America. Keep the Dream alive and attractive, still. The whole world is watching, not just the speech, but the story, to see how the narrative unfolds. Empires have all gone down this path, with beginning, middle and ending.

    Let’s hope we can stretch our plot  a while longer. Keep them guessing. Hint: share the software and start the chain of goodwill effects.